Wreckers Cave
by lyviel
Summary: To Ifan's horror, Kath was grabbed and dragged off by Voidwoken in Wrecker's Cave


They'd barely stepped inside the cave and already they were confronted with countless bodies, blood pooling on the stone floor.

"Well," Kath announced, fists on his hips as he surveyed the scene. "This was a bad idea."

Fane may have been a skeleton but it was still obvious when he was doing the equivalent of rolling his eyes. He did that a lot when Kath spoke. "You're skill for pointing out the obvious never ceases to astound."

"This place makes Fort Joy look entirely charming," Kath said.

"Are you forgetting the bodies in the basement?" Ifan asked. "It's maybe a tie in my book."

"You know," Kath said, glancing back at his companions. "We can just leave."

"And go where?" Beast asked, eyebrow raised.

Kath sighed heavily, shoulders drooping. They all knew they weren't going to simply leave, not when there might be people still alive in here and in need of help. And then there were the possessed dwarves. Mordus needed to be stopped.

"Let's just… tread carefully," Kath said.

Kath tried not to breathe as they past by all of the corpses. He thought he heard movement in the darkness as well, but maybe that was just his imagination. Then again, there were corpses everywhere and something had to have done this. When they eventually found themselves at a dead end, Kath sighed in relief.

"Oh well, we did our best," he said, shrugging as he turned to leave. Ifan raised an eyebrow at him, slight smile on his lips and he stopped. "Fine, fine, we can look around a bit more if you really want to."

Before they could take another step, however, suddenly the ground shoot. With a horrifying shreek, four huge insect-like Voidwoken dug their way up through the ground, charging into them and then it was all chaos.

Kath lept back out of the way as they swarmed, daggers at the ready, but they had him surrounded and cut off from the others, spitting webs at him and when he found his foot stuck to the ground, he knew he was screwed. One of the things knocked him to the ground, it's horrible insect legs wrapping him up in webs even as he tried to squirm away. Thankfully he still had hold of his dagger. He sliced through the web, trying to pry himself free.

He was relieved to see that the others were still on their feet. Fane had managed to burn Beast free of some webs and Ifan was too quick to be pinned down. He made eye contact with ifan, watching as his eyes went wide in horror. He summoned up Afrit, about to sprint to assist Kath, but it was already too late. Kath raised a hand, warning him away, but suddenly he felt himself being dragged and he changed his mind, frantically waving for Ifan to approach after all as the thing began burrowing underground, pulling him with.

"Kath!" Ifan cried out in horror, but it was too late and he watched, terror gripping him, as Kath was dragged underground.

Ifan called up up as much source as he could, launching himself into the air. He landed heavily, cracking stone, on the other side of the three remaining Voidwoken, currently locked in combat with Beast, but it was too late. Kath was long gone and out of sight. He'd been shouting as he was dragged away and Ifan couldn't even hear him any longer. Ifan cursed and turned back, firing off a volley of arrows, knowing that the sooner he helped the others, the sooner they could go after Kath.

Kath considered himself exceptionally lucky, given that as soon as the Voidwoken set him down, it immediately burrowed away to harass some other poor soul. He supposed it was about time things looked up for him, he'd had a bout of bad luck that had lasted years at this point.

Now left alone to his own devices, he sliced his way free of the webbing and fell heavily to the ground. Groaning, he sat up, and found himself inches from a nest of horrible-looking eggs. He scrambled back, jumping to his feet and watched the pulsating eggs warily, but thankfully they didn't seem to be about to hatch. Had he been left here as food for when it did? That certainly wasn't a fun train of thought.

He dusted himself off, a futile effort with the sticky web still clinging to him, and turned to take stock of the situation. He'd been dragged and carried quite a ways and he wasn't exactly sure which direction would lead him back to his allies, but he wasn't exactly eager to wait around here until the eggs hatched, so he picked a direction at random and began walking. And then he stopped and went in the opposite direction because there were three Voidwoken waiting down that way.

Ifan was breathing heavily as the final Voidwoken fell. Immediately, he ran back over to the hole Kath had been dragged through and stared down into it. Afrit wined at his side as the others approached. He knew she felt the same apprehension he did, both of them worried they might be too late, that Kath will have joined the bodies scattered across the floor by the time they found him.

"Don't' worry," Ifan said, resolve in his voice, running his fingers through his wolf's soft fur before letting her vanish as the source faded. "We'll find him,"

"We're going to have to go down that, aren't we?" Fane asked, looking decidedly unhappy.

Kath probably could have fought his way out of here, but he didn't exactly want to risk it. Besides, he needed to find the others and he didn't have any time to waste. His specialty was stealth anyway, so he put those skills to use.

The dwarves had set up bases throughout, locked wooden gates sectioning them off from the rest of the cave system. No doubt it was supposed to keep the Voidwoken out, but that didn't seem to be entirely effective given that they could usually simply fly over or burrow under. As it was, the gates were just a temporary annoyance for Kath and his lockpicks. As it gave way with a satisfying click and swung open, he nearly ran directly into a surprised Ifan.

"Kath!"

He looked so incredibly relieved, like a weight had suddenly been lifted from his shoulders as he ran forward and embraced Kath in a powerful hug. Ifan released him after a moment, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

Kath wasn't used to anyone looking out for him or worrying for his well being. He'd been by himself for so long. He found it- nice, if odd. And incredibly overwhelming. He could feel his cheeks burning, a rare occurrence.

"Nice to see you too," Kath said, punching his arm, not sure what people were usually supposed to do in this situation. Should he kiss Ifan? He pretty much always wanted to kiss him, so maybe he couldn't trust that impulse.

"Oh for heaven's sake," Beast muttered behind them, no doubt fed up with their awkwardness.

"I'm- glad you didn't die," Kath said. "All of you. Now, let's go kick this Mordus' ass."

As they continued on, he found Ifan's hand and squeezed it briefly. Ifan shot him a fond smile. Hopefully once they got out of here Kath could buy him a drink and they could have another nice evening in the undertavern.


End file.
